We hooked Mark up with Dave Brown and, quite different to how we normally do things, Mark and Dave scouted many times together. This isn't a bad thing, it's maybe even a good thing, just not how hunts normally happen because usually hunters are coming in from out of state. Since Mark lives in Arizona and he knew he may never draw this tag again he thought he'd make the most of it by spending as much time in the field as possible.

Together they scoured most of the unit and decided to chase a particular buck up on the Plateau on opening morning.....

I was guiding Ty Goodman, but having a lot of cell phone troubles so I couldn't contact anyone the day before the hunt. However I ran into several hunters (never did see Dave and Mark) who were all telling me of a giant buck that supposedly everyone was going to chase and, of course, it was in the same area Dave and Mark told me their buck was!

Ty and I were done opening morning around 9 and I high tailed it to where Dave and Mark were hunting hoping that they were done, but that if they weren't that I might be able to help out.

My phone finally worked and I talked to Rocky (who came to help and have fun with Dave and Mark) and he said they weren't done yet. I told Rocky that I might have a buck for them stashed away and with only about 60 minutes of light left Rocky said to meet Dave where their camp was ASAP and to see if we could figure something out.

I got to camp and Dave quickly explained their morning adventure and 12 miles worth of hiking and it seemed that those "other" hunters were right as there were a lot of people hunting that same buck.

I showed Dave some video I had of two really good bucks and Dave agreed that we should go after one of them, but the problem was they were both an easy 30 minutes away which wouldn't give us any time to hunt them once we got there. I then remembered one last buck that I found last year and just the day before opening day this year I found again. He lived about 2 miles from any road, but could be scoped up with enough patience and luck. I flipped on the camera and Dave about jumped out of his shoes. Mark agreed. Let's go kill that buck!

We got to the spot where I saw him the day before and we found a few bucks in the distance and then finally found the one we were looking for. With only 30 minutes of light left Dave and Mark went for it! Rocky, Travis, and I stayed behind and watched through our spotting scopes. After about 20 minutes we could still see Dave and Mark and it appeared that they hadn't walked very far - they were still a long ways from the buck! 5 minutes more passed by, the sun has been gone for a few minutes now and the remaining light was fading fast.

And then it happened - the buck and his does took off running! Uh oh! It appeared that they had been spooked by something. We didn't know if Dave and Mark saw this or if they were the ones who spooked them.

And then a good thing happened, but we weren't sure how good it was going to work out - the herd bolted straight toward where we last saw Dave and Mark! And then...a few seconds later...we heard the gunshot!

Mark recounted the story when we got to them - complete darkness by now - and the shot was only 80 yards away! How's that for a perfect ending to the day.

Mark's buck officially scores 90 0/8 SCI. It's 16 4/8 on both horns with prongs of 6 6/8 and 6 5/8. Awesome bottom mass of 6 7/8 and 7 0/8 at the base and 7 4/8 and 7 5/8 at the first quarter. The tops were this bucks only slightly weak point, but they were still about average for a giant buck at 4 2/8 and 4 1/8 and then 3 1/8 for the last measurement.